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NEW ORLEANS. 




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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 

1891. 



NEW ORLEANS. 




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OCT 5 rj91 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1891. 



Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 






NEW ORLEANS. 



New Orleans, the chief city of Louisiana, and one 
of the most important commercial cities in the United 
States, is situated on both sides of the Mississippi 
River — the greater portion on the east bank — 107 
miles from its mouth. Its corporate area is 187 sq. m., 
but a large portion of this is market-gardens, forest, 
and swamp, and only 48 sq. m. are built over, fronting 
on the Mississippi, and running back from half a mile 
to 3 miles. The city proper has a river frontage of 
13 miles, and its western district, ' Algiers,' of 3 miles. 
The Mississippi makes two bends here, giving the old 
city a crescent-shaped fronts whence its former title, 
' The Crescent City,' but it is now the shape of the 
letter S. The river is from 600 to looo yards wide, 
and 60 to 240 feet deep. The bar at its mouth was 
removed in 1874-79 by the Eads jetties in South Pass, 
and vessels of 30 feet now easily reach New Orleans. 
The commerce of the city is large (;^5 50,493,3 15 in 
1890), and it is second in the United States in exports. 
New Orleans is the terminus of three canals, and of 
six large railroads (total mileage, 17,842) and three 
local lines, while twenty lines of steamships connect 



4 ArElV ORLEANS. 

it with other American and foreign ports. Since 1875 
it has made great progress in manufactures, particu- 
larly in cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, machinery, lum- 
ber, furniture, fertilisers, sugar-refining, rice-milling, 
beer, cigars, &c. Its factories increased from 554 in 
1870 to 898 in 1880, and 2100 in 1890; and their 
product from $8,450,439 to 1^44,500,000. 

The land upon which New Orleans is built is per- 
fectly flat, and lies from 3 to 6 feet below the level of 
the Mississippi at high-water, and is protected from 
overflow by levees or dykes of earth. Similar levees 
in the rear keep out the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. 
The soil is saturated with water, and cellars are im- 
possible. The climate is warm and damp, the mean 
temperature for the year being 69° F. The summer 
is tempered by winds from the Gulf, and is not op- 
pressively warm. On account of its situation, the 
city is badly drained. It is without sewers ; open 
gutters carry the rain-water into canals, and thence 
into Lake Pontchartrain, but they are insufficient, and 
the streets are frequently flooded after a heavy rainfall. 
The health of the city, however, has greatly improved 
within recent years; the death-rate has been reduced 
from 59 per looo in i860 to 24*80 in 1890. 

While it possesses few imposing buildings. New 
Orleans is a picturesque city. There are several parks 
little improved, but with handsome monuments or 
statues of Jackson, Lee, Franklin, and others. The 
custom-house of granite cost ^4,500,000, and is the 
largest and most imposing building in the city. The 
cathedral of St. Louis, a Gothic church erected in 
1794, is a good sample of the Creole-Spanish archi- 



NEW ORLEANS. t 

lecture. The archiepiscopal palace (1737) is the old- 
est building in the city. Other noteworthy structures 
are the cotton exchange, United States mint, St 
Charles Hotel, and Christ and St Patrick's churches. 
There are 188 churches, and 78 public schools, with 
430 teachers and 21,136 pupils enrolled. Tulane 
University (known as the University of Louisiana from 
1834 to 1883) has 59 professors and 683 students. 
Under its control is the Sophie Newcomb Memorial 
College (i 887), for the higher education of girls. The 
College of the Immaculate Conception (under the 
Jesuits) has 228 students. There are 4 colleges for 
negroes, males and females, with i860 students. The 
Howard Memorial (1888), Tulane, and Louisiana state 
libraries, all free, contain together 120,000 volumes. 
The Charity Hospital (1784) is the largest institution 
of its kind in the United States, with accommodation 
for 800 to 1000 persons; and there are 54 other hos- 
pitals, asylums, &c. 

The site of New Orleans was first visited in 1699 
by Bienville, who in 17 18 laid the foundations of the 
city, and in 1726 made it the capital. In 1763 it was 
ceded to Spain by France, with the rest of Louisiana; 
but when in 1765 the Spanish governor, Ulloa, at- 
tempted to take possession, he was driven out, and 
the people established a government of their own. 
In 1769 New Orleans was occupied by the Spanish, 
and the leaders in the late movement were shot. It 
was ceded to France in 1802, and transferred to the 
United States a few days later. Incorporated as a 
city in 1804, it was divided in 1836 into three separate 
municipalities, in consequence of the jealousies be- 



6 NEW ORLEANS. 

tween the Creoles and the Americans ; but the three 
were again consohdated into one in 1852. Since then 
New Orleans has annexed the neighbouring towns of 
Lafayette, Jefferson, Carrollton, and Algiers. Other 
outstanding events in the history of the city have been 
the battle of New Orleans (see Jackson) in 1815 ; its 
capture in 1862 by the Federal fleet under Admiral 
Farragut (q.v.); and serious political troubles in 1874 
and 1877, resulting in the former year in a battle on 
the levee between the citizens and the police and 
militia, in which 46 persons were killed and 216 
wounded. In 1880 the capital of Louisiana was re- 
moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. 

Pop. (1769, when it was transferred to Spain) 3190; 
(1802, when it became American) 10,508; (1840) 
102,193; (1880) 216,190; (1890) 241,995. The city 
is very cosmopolitan in race and language. Only 19 
per cent, of the population is of American or English 
descent, 17 of Creole or French descent, 14 German, 
12 Irish, 8 Italian, 5 Spanish, Scandinavian, Jewish, 
&c., 16 negroes, and 9 of mixed races, Indians, Cliinese, 
and Malays. 



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